


So Very Easy to Lose

by ishie



Category: Doctor Who, The X-Files
Genre: Crossovering, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-14 01:26:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2172678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishie/pseuds/ishie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>What's a sister?</em> Samantha wondered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Very Easy to Lose

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lauren (notalwaysweak)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/gifts).



> So many thanks to L for the beta ♥

i.

The noise was almost, but not quite, the same as the screech of old Mr Matheson's Buick lumbering down the road. Between the TV and their shouting match, they might not have heard it if the power hadn't gone out. But they couldn't have missed the flashing lights.

"Fox?"

"I said, be quiet!"

Samantha couldn't see anything out the window with him in the way. She tried squeezing in under his arm to peer between the slatted blinds, but he caught her in a headlock. When she squirmed to get out, she wound up with her nose pressed to his stinky armpit.

"You are _such_ a butt-munch," she muttered. One quick jab of her closed fist in his stomach and he let her go.

He still wouldn't get out of the way, though.

The noise—and the lights—died suddenly. Fox let the blinds drop and pushed back from the window.

"Stay here," he commanded. He pushed his hair back and squared his shoulders. All it did was make the straps of his jersey move about a centimeter. "I'm going outside to see what's happening."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"If you go out there, I'm coming, too."

There was a terrible groaning noise out there, then a silence so deep it throbbed, then a grumpy-sounding voice saying, "This is all very unusual. Are you sure this is the place?"

Fox headed for the door. Samantha was right behind him. He was taller by almost a foot now, but she was still faster. She darted past him and was already out on the porch when Fox yelled her name. He should have just kept his mouth shut. All that did was get the thing's attention.

It was taller than the tallest person Samantha had ever seen, but it didn't look like a person. It looked like a zebra that learned to walk on its hind legs and stuffed itself into a lumpy mustard-colored suit coat. It had a head shaped like a cat's. Its mouth was full of sharp-looking teeth.

"Be quiet!" it hissed. Its hooves clopped on the porch floor, even when it stepped on the welcome mat. It smelled like the zoo.

"Samantha!" Fox yelled again.

He should have come running out the door after her, like a big brother was supposed to do. But, of course, he didn't. Samantha backed away from the zebra and peeked in the window.

"Get away from my sister!" Fox yelled. He was standing on a chair next to the hutch and reaching for the box where Dad kept his gun. But he threw it to the floor instead of whatever he'd meant to do with it.

Maybe that was what he'd meant to do with it.

The zebra ignored him and looked down at Samantha. "Are you the offering?"

"The what?"

It sighed. "For fuck's sake," it muttered.

"Hey!" Samantha yelled. Zebra or not, you weren't supposed to curse at little kids. Not even Dad did that.

Rummaging around in one of its pockets, the zebra pulled out a flat red box and shook it. There was a tremendous squeal. Samantha clapped her hands over her ears in case it happened again.

"That should do it," the zebra said in a new voice. All the loudness and at least half the rudeness was gone. The accent, too, though Samantha hadn't realized the zebra spoke with one until it was gone.

"Do — you — understand — me?" it brayed. As if she couldn't hear when they were standing only feet apart, it said in a lower tone, "I really don't have time for this. I really don't."

"Get away from my sister!" Fox yelled again.

"Oh, now, there's no need for that!" 

A small old man stood on the front steps. His long white hair was brushed back from his face and curled under at the ends. Around his neck he wore a short brown scarf, even though it was at least seventy degrees outside still. He looked, mostly, like Grandma Kuipers, though much shorter, skinnier, and less inclined to complain about everything Mom did or said.

"Aximo, did you initiate a timeloop, hmm?"

He peered up into Aximo's face and rubbed his own chin. "You did, didn't you?"

"It's the seventh of Nnlart, Doctor. I'm the first to cross their threshold, so they owe me an offering."

 _Liar!_ Samantha put her hands on her hips and tried to look mean. "You didn't cross any threshold!"

Aximo ignored her and shook its head. "Really, things have fallen so far as this in my father's kingdom?"

"In your father's what?" Samantha asked.

"In his kingdom, I said. Oh, this is a sorry state! Have you no education to make up for your lack of courtesy? We'll have to do this the easy way, I suppose."

Aximo drew itself up to its full height and tossed its head back. It was all very dramatic, or might have been, if it hadn't knocked into the light overhead and stumbled backward, cursing. It reached into its badly fitted coat again and came up with another long red box, which flashed a brilliant green light and—

"Well, come on, let's not waste what's left of the day," an old man said. He looked at Samantha and frowned. To the zebra standing next to him, "You're sure this is all on the up-and-up? I only agreed to give you a ride to the festival. You never mentioned needing to collect anything along the way."

"The festival cannot continue without the offering," the zebra said. "My father sent me to collect it, and here it is."

The zebra put out its arm, so Samantha took it and then wasn't sure why. When both the zebra and the old man went down the steps and out through a small gate, she went along with them.

"Get away from my sister!" something yelled, a long way away.

 _What's a sister?_ Samantha wondered.

 

ii.

Malthua was nice and all, but Samantha really preferred a planet where her feet actually touched the ground once in a while.

"It's very pretty here!" she rushed to say before anyone could get mad. "It's just ... not home."

"And where is home?" the queen asked.

She turned to answer and saw that Aximo was still cringing in the corner. This was the longest it had gone without crying since the mind shield it used on her wore off halfway to this planet.

"Oh. Um," Samantha hedged, "I'm not sure what you'd call it. It might not even have a name! It's just a bunch of rocks and stuff."

Aximo gave her a watery smile. She smiled back. Sure, it had taken her halfway across the galaxy and stuck her brother in a time loop, but it wasn't like it was mean about it.

The queen made a soft noise. "You poor thing. Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay here, with us? We haven't had such a tender young one in so long."

Her teeth were at least twice as sharp as Aximo's.

"Your Majesty!" the Doctor interjected. "I beg your pardon, madame, but the girl and I are expected home."

He patted Samantha's shoulder, then seemed to think better of it and patted the top of her head instead. Samantha scowled.

"You... also call the rocky land home?" The queen shifted in her seat and tapped a long claw on on her necklace. "Is the girl yours?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes! Well, not home exactly, but yes, she's my...." His voice trailed off. Everyone in the room seemed to lean forward, anticipating his next words, but whatever they were, he didn't speak them.

Samantha jabbed her elbow into his ribs, the same as she did to Fox when he was being stupid. "Grandpa," she whined. "I want to go home."

She saw the queen recoil with her ears bent back flat against her head. The queen might look exactly like an enormous cat, but that expression was pure Teena Mulder whenever Samantha made too much noise in the morning.

"Grandpa," Samantha whined, louder this time. "I'm tired. You said we were going home! I don't want to go to another festival. I want my mommy!"

He kept patting her head, even when she burst into noisy sobs. She turned and buried her face in his coat. He smelled like sugar and old books.

"Yes, fine!" the queen said. "Please, go! Get her ou— home. Quickly."

 

iii.

They stared out at the shifting sands, green and purple and teeming with winged whales on their annual migration. Samantha could barely see any of it. She rubbed her nose with the back of her hand and sniffed again. A white handkerchief waved in front of her face. When she didn't grab it, the Doctor laid it over her hair instead.

After a few moments, he turned back into the ship and spun a dial on the console.

"Quickly is quite a bit trickier than it seemed," he said. "Now, close the door and we'll give it another try, shall we?"

 

iv.

"When are we this time?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, let me check. I believe we're closer than we ever have been. Let's see..."

Samantha drummed her fingers on the console while he hemmed and hawed over his readouts. She could easily have found it out for herself, but he was so touchy about her looking at his things.

"Ah! We are in London. That's Earth, my girl! You're nearly home!"

"Yes, but when?"

"May 1963, of course. What a question. If you'd listen to what I tell you, you wouldn't waste so much time asking things you should already know!"

It was useless to argue that he hadn't actually said it aloud. The Doctor was a pain in the butt, always and forever. The first law of the universe.

Still, though, he had managed to get them closer than they ever had been before. Samantha did a quick calculation. They were about 3000 miles from Chilmark, give or take a few hundred. Not so bad! The last time he got them to Earth was in the 500s or thereabouts, in the highlands of what would be Peru someday.

Of course, the Mulders wouldn't be living in Chilmark yet. They were still in New York, in the apartment they would be packing up to make the move to Boston while the house on Vine Street was being finished. By January they would be all moved in, so they could bring Samantha home from the hospital for the first time and Fox could try to sit on her head...

 _By January._ Eight months from now. Her family would never believe anything she said if she turned up before she had been born. Not even Fox would believe that. She had known for years that it would be a hard sell, telling them in 1973 what had happened that night. She was fully grown now, a smaller version of her mother when she looked in a mirror. How would she convince them that she was the little girl they hadn't even met yet?

"Maybe we should try again."

"Of course, of course! I just have a few adjustments to make and we'll be on our way."

But they weren't. Something had burnt out during that last trip, and they were stuck.

"It will take me at least another month to find a suitable replacement," the Doctor said after a day or two of tinkering. "How are you doing with your lessons? Just because we can't get you home yet doesn't mean an excuse to ... oh, what's the word... Well, you know what I mean!"

"I've been through all the courses in the computer. Some of them twice already."

"That won't do, will it? No, no, that won't do at all." It was something approaching warm outside, but he swept a cape around his shoulders and picked up his ugly old hat. Somehow, though, he managed to look as though he fit in everywhere and everywhen they went.

"Come, we'll find a school. They won't be able to teach you anything, of course. Terrible time for that. This planet won't be worth taking a single course of study for at least, oh, six or seven more centuries!"

Samantha rolled her eyes. He forgot she was from this planet more often than not, but it didn't bother her much. She'd seen how far outpaced they were by other worlds.

"You should play my granddaughter again, I think. What name would you like to use?"

Samantha thought about it for a few minutes, while he locked up the police box. "Let's try Susan. Is that close enough that you won't forget it this time?"

His grumbling was answer enough.


End file.
